Cambridge is ‘near breaking point’ warns housing chief, as new study names city as one of most unaffordable in the UK

Cambridge’s housing chief has warned property costs are “near breaking point” as a new study named the city as one of the most unaffordable in the UK.

Cllr Catherine Smart, the city council’s deputy leader and executive councillor for housing, said soaring prices and rents were at risk of becoming a “block on the economy”.

Research published by Lloyds Bank yesterday said Cambridge was the UK’s ninth-least affordable city, with the average house price standing at more than seven times the typical wage.

While this differed from other recent research which put the figure at 12 times the average salary, it was another warning of the struggle working families face to buy a home in the city.

Cllr Smart called for reforms to the private rental sector at the Liberal Democrat spring conference, in light of the fact that many people could not afford to buy their own properties.

Her suggestions included giving magistrates the power to order repayment of rent when a rogue landlord has been convicted of illegally evicting a tenant, and the introduction of more permanent tenancies with regular rent reviews.

Cllr Smart said: “Prices in parts of the country including Cambridge are rising and making it extremely difficult.

“House prices in Cambridge are 12 times the average salary while at the same time, prices and rents are rising and we are near breaking point when housing problems will become a block on the economy.”

The Lloyds research named Oxford as the UK’s least affordable city, with Winchester, Bath and Brighton also among the places ahead of Cambridge on the list.

Recent Land Registry data put the average house price in Cambridge at £362,800, up 11 per cent year-on-year – the fastest rate of growth in the UK.

The council’s plans for thousands of new homes, including development in the green belt off Worts’ Causeway, were partly justified by claims that the proposals would stop house prices from rising as quickly as they would have done otherwise.

But Cllr John Hipkin, who represents Castle, questioned whether property would ever be ‘affordable’ when the city’s housing market was now so closely linked to London’s.

He argued any slowdown in house price rises would only make Cambridge more attractive for a period to investors and people looking to move from the capital, until prices rose again.

Cllr Hipkin said: “It’s a false appeal to say that, if we build more homes in Cambridge, they will become affordable.

“One just has to accept that, in the same way there are parts of the city that are unattainable for most other citizens of the city, it may well be that this is a place that will be unaffordable for many who would like to live here and, instead of bemoaning this, we should plan on the assumption this will be the case.

“I think we need to build affordable homes outside the city, with excellent transport links into the city.”